While we were on Hornby Island, we were lucky enough to take a nice walk in Helliwell Provincial Park. Helliwell is fairly diverse as there are areas of both old and second growth trees as well as open grassy areas on the bluffs. The park extends to the tip of the Island and provides many beautiful vistas to enjoy. It is surely one of the treasures of Hornby Island.

While on our walk, we spotted an adult eagle perched upon a very interesting rock formation down by the water. I found both the eagle and the spot he chose to occupy a pleasure to observe. I do not know if this eagle was from Nest #22, however, geographically it seemed to be the closest nest to the area where we spotted him. It is possible that the eagle was from another nest, maybe even from the Tribune Bay nest as this bluff forms the border on the opposite side of Tribune Bay. And, while I was at Hidden Bay, I did see a few eagles flying in to the area near the bluffs, below what I think is Salal Ridge. In any case, I will post the photos here, due to proximity to the spot where nest #22 appears on the nest map.

These photos were taken in the late afternoon on June 17, 2010.Photos are clickable.

View from Helliwell Park trail

View from bluff in Helliwell Park. The eagle on the interesting rock formation is barely visible in this photo, but you can spot him with an eagle's eye.

Eagle on "cinder cone" Helliwell Park

Eagle on the pyramid rock formation

More photos in next post.

Logged

Nurture yourself with Nature - luvthebirds(and don't forget to screep for what you need)

I spoke today with someone who regularly takes walks around Heliwell Park. He described a nest location that certainly seems to correspond to nest #22 (big maple, etc). He said he's been hearing screeps around this nest! So it sounds like this nest is occupied this year after all!

This man lives in the vicinity of nests 16-17-18. He told me that there used to be a nest in his yard. After the eagles abandoned that site, he watched them pick up some of the branches of that nest for their new building project!

i worked near Helliwell & Whaling Station today, so i visited the 4 nests in that area, on the way home.i took my camera & Dooki into Helliwell Park & went for a walk to check out Nest #22.Winterwren had a friend report that they*d heard screeps from this nest!So, i set up my camera, & not long afterwards, a beautiful adult landed on a perch branch of the nest tree & was ventilating (holding open their wings a bit), to cool off on this hot day.Not long afterwards, i heard the very recognizable sounds of screeping!i could not spot the eaglet, but i could hear them very well.i recorded their screeping, while i video*d the beautiful adult.i even heard churbling at one point!! Finally, i spotted the eaglet!Hopefully i got some nice fotos & videos to show you.

This is the beautiful adult, perched on a branch right next to the Nest.It was a hot hot day, & they had their wings open like this the whole time, ventilating, trying to cool off in the heat, even though they were partly in the shade.

i was videoing & photographing the adult when i realized i was hearing a very distinctive sound!An Eaglet!In this video, you can watch the adult preening, you hear another adult trill, while off to the right, the Eaglet is calling away!

july 21 2010 14:29 - Nest #22 adult preens while Eaglet calls to them from the Nest on the right - 153-231

i finally caught a glimpse of the Eaglet when they walked to the left edge of the Nest, as close to the adult as they could get.Once there, all my fotos of her/him had closed eyes!The little Eaglet had dozed off standing there in the hot sun!